America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Friday, July 31, 2020
U.S CONGRESS TURNS UP HEAT ON BIG TECH - BUT THEN GOES OFF AND SUCKS THEM OFF FOR CAMPAIGN BRIBES
Watch Live: House Judiciary Committee to Hold Big Tech Antitrust Hearing
The House Judiciary Committee will hold an antitrust hearing on America’s largest technology companies on Wednesday.
The hearing will feature Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has filed a criminal referral against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for making materially false statements to Congress while under oath at two separate joint hearings in April 2018, according to a statement released by the congressman on Monday.
“Zuckerberg repeatedly and categorically denied his company engaged in bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics and also denied that Facebook censored and suppressed content supportive of President Donald Trump and other conservatives,” read the statement by Rep. Gaetz of the Facebook CEO’s conduct during the congressional hearings.
The congressman went on to say that in June, James O’Keefe and the investigative journalists at Project Veritas revealed evidence to the contrary.
“Project Veritas published the results of an undercover investigation featuring two whistleblowers who worked as Facebook’s ‘content moderators,’ revealing that the overwhelming majority of content filtered by Facebook’s AI program was content in support of President Donald Trump, Republican candidates for office, or conservatism in general,” added Gaetz in his statement.
“This alone is already an indication of bias within the platform,” he added.
Gaetz says that he now “questions Zuckerberg’s veracity, as well as his willingness to cooperate with the House’s oversight authority,” suggesting that the Facebook CEO has been “diverting congressional resources during time-sensitive investigations, and materially impeding our work.”
“Such misrepresentations are not only unfair, they are potentially illegal and fraudulent,” affirmed Gaetz.
Therefore, Gaetz is now referring Zuckerberg to the DOJ for an investigation into the alleged false statements made to Congress by Zuckerberg while under oath.
The congressman wrote to U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday, urging him to investigate the Zuckerberg’s conduct.
“Facebook’s AI screening content is not politically neutral,” wrote Gaetz in his letter to Barr. “Neither are the moderators hired to review content flagged by the AI program. This stands in opposition to Mr. Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony and violates the ‘good faith’ provision of Section 230(c)(2)(A) of the Communications Decency Act.”
“Accordingly, I respectfully refer Mr. Zuckerberg to the Department for an investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. §§1001, 1505, and 1621 for materially false statements made to Congress while testifying under oath,” he added.
The most powerful tech CEOs in the country, representing Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel to discuss their market dominance and censorship yesterday. Here are some of the most misleading answers the CEOs gave Congress.
Yesterday, the CEO’s of major American tech firms Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook appeared before the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel to discuss the market dominance of their firms and issues relating to censorship on their platforms. During the hearing, the CEOs made a number of claims relating to their platforms and the competition they face. Each of the CEOs made extremely misleading statements, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai regularly misrepresenting how Google operates or the competition the tech giant faces.
Here are six instances where the Masters of the Universe stretched the truth:
1: Google’s Sundar Pichai Claims it ‘Faces New Competition Every Day’
During the hearing, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Congress that the company faces intense competition, and that “new competitors emerge every day.”
Pichai stated: “Just as America’s technology leadership is not inevitable, Google’s continued success is not guaranteed. New competitors emerge every day, and today users have more access to information than ever before. Competition drives us to innovate, and it also leads to better products, lower choices, and more choices for everyone.”
However, while it is true that many companies may make an attempt to compete with Google, the chances of them being successful are extremely slim. For example, Google accounts for 90 percent of online searches according to GlobalStats, while competitors such as Microsoft’s Bing and the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo may attempt to compete with Google, the company faces no real threat or competition.
Google’s search dominance is one of the reasons that the company was able to suppress the search results of Breitbart News and other conservative news websites, essentially “purging Breitbart content from search results since the 2016 election,” according to Breitbart News’ reporter Allum Bokhari.
2: Google CEO Sundar Pichai: ‘We Don’t Approach Work With Any Political Viewpoint’
Pichai claimed during yesterday’s hearing that the tech giant does not approach its work with any particular political viewpoint, a concept disproved by Breitbart News’ extensive reporting on the company’s political bias. During yesterday’s hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) addressed Pichai, stating:
You said something today different than you did with Ms. Lofgren, you confessed that there is a manual component to the way in which you blacklist content. It seems to be no coincidence that sites like Gateway Pundit, the Western Journal, American Spectator, Daily Caller, and Breitbart that receive the ire or the negative treatment as a consequence of your manual tooling.
And it also seems noteworthy that whistleblowers at your own comapny have spoken out. You said that one of the reasons you maintain this manual tool is to stop election interference, I believe it is in fact your company that is engaging in elction interference. You’re using your market dominance in search to accomplish that election interference.
Pichai responded:
I strongly disagree with that characterization.
We don’t approach this work with any political viewpoint. We do that to comply with law, known copyright violations, very narrow circumstances and we have to do that to comply with the law, and in many cases, those requests come [from] law enforcement agencies.
Breitbart News reported as far back as 2017 that political bias was rampant at Google, with senior management reportedly “on the verge of tears” following President Trump’s election. One Google insider told Breitbart News at the time: “After the 2016 election, we had an entire TGIF dedicated to the election result, in which several of our top management gave emotional speeches as though the world was going to end, and seemed to be on the verge of tears. It was embarrassing.”
Recently Breitbart News reported that Breitbart’s ranking in Google’s search engine had diminished significantly following our publication of a story in 2016 that at an internal meeting leaked to Breitbart News, top Google executives, including Sundar Pichai, Sergey Brin, and Kent Walker, expressed their anger over President Trump’s election and compared Trump voters to “extremists.” During the meeting, the executives discussed their desire to make Trump’s election and the populist movement a “blip” in history.
Breitbart News reporter Allum Bokhari writes:
Search visibility is a key industry measure of how findable a publisher’s content is in Google search. New data shows that Google has suppressed Breitbart’s search visibility by 99.7 percent since 2016.
On April 4, 2016, Breitbart ranked in the top ten search positions (i.e., on the first page of Google search results) for 355 key search terms; but now, as of July 20, 2020, Breitbart ranks in the top ten search positions for only one search term. And, on April 4, 2016, Breitbart ranked in the top 100 search positions for 16,820 key search terms; but now, as of July 20, 2020, Breitbart ranks in the top 100 search positions for only 55 search terms.
Moreover, organic Google search traffic to Breitbart (measured by unique visitors) is down 63 percent when comparing the first half of 2016 with the first half of 2020.
Breitbart News has repeatedly revealed Google’s political bias, yet the company’s CEO still attempts to claim that the tech giant does not approach its work “with any political viewpoint.”
3: Sundar Pichai Claims Google Has ‘Limited Presence in China’
While it is true that due to China’s restrictive “Great Firewall” many U.S. companies such as Facebook and Google are unable to operate directly within the country, that hasn’t stopped Google from making multiple deals with the Chinese government and attempting to launch a censored search engine for government officials.
The search app, codenamed “Project Dragonfly,” would have featured a list of unsearchable terms based on topics that are blocked by the government of China. It would also have linked users’ searches to personal phone numbers. Leakers also claimed that Google’s privacy team had been denied access to the project, something the company denied. A senior Google researcher, Jack Poulson, resigned in protest at the project in September of 2018.
After details of Google’s Project Dragonfly search engine leaked, many came out in opposition to the company’s plans to operate in China. 14 human rights organizations published an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai which stated: “Google risks becoming complicit in the Chinese government’s repression of freedom of speech and other human rights in China.”
Vice President Mike Pence stated: “Google should immediately end development of the ‘Dragonfly’ app that will strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers.”
Google has stated that they are “not close” to launching a search engine in China but leaked discussions paint a different picture. Google’s Keith Enright told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on September 26th that there “is a Project Dragonfly,” but said, “we are not close to launching a product in China.” Google’s search engine chief, Ben Gomes, told a BBC reporter at Google’s 20th-anniversary celebration event: “Right now, all we’ve done is some exploration, but since we don’t have any plans to launch something, there’s nothing much I can say about it.”
But privately, discussions surrounding Project Dragonfly have painted a different picture. According to one Google source, Gomes’s comments to the BBC about Project Dragonfly were “bullshit.” Sources told the Intercept that Gomes informed employees in July 2019 that the company planned to release the censored Chinese search engine as soon as possible and employees were to prepare the engine to be “brought off the shelf and quickly deployed” once they received approval from Beijing.
4: Apple CEO Tim Cook Claims All App Developers Treated Equally
Google’s Sundar Pichai was not the only tech CEO to misrepresent how his company operates, Apple’s Tim Cook also made the bold claim that all iOS developers that attempt to have their app listed on Apple’s App Store are treated equally.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) addressed Cook, stating: “Mr. Cook, with over one hundred million iPhone users in the United States alone and with Apple’s ownership of the app store giving Apple the ability to control which apps are allowed to be marketed to Apple users, you wield immense power over small businesses to grow and prosper. Apple is the sole decision-maker as to whether an app is made available to app users through Apple’s app store isn’t that correct?”
Cook responded: “If it’s a native app, yes sir.” Johnson then outlined an investigation that found that app developers are very much at Apple’s mercy when it comes to demands and changes to the App Store. Johnson stated: “The app store is said to also discriminate between app developers with similar apps on the Apple app platform, and also as to smaller app developers versus large app developers. So, Mr. Cook, does Apple not treat all app developers equally?”
Cook responded: “Sir, we treat every developer the same, we have open and transparent rules, its a rigorous process. Because we care so deeply about privacy and security and quality, we do look at every app before it goes on, but those rules apply evenly to everyone…”
However, Breitbart News has reported that Apple has a long history of removing apps from its store for a number of reasons and often with little cause. Breitbart News reported in 2016 that the app of the upstart social media network Gab was removed from the App Store by apple over content posted by users on the platform, not content generated by the app itself.
Gab CEO Andrew Torba commented at the time: “The double standards of Silicon Valley are on full display with this app store rejection from Apple. Apps like Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter are flooded with pornographic content and allowed to remain on the App store.”
“Gab empowers users to filter out this type of content, mute users who share it, and also features a reporting system to flag illegal content,” he continued. “Apple went out of their way to seek out this content and find any reason to reject our app. We will continue to appeal this decision and defend free speech for everyone. In the meantime, Gab can be accessed from any mobile browser as always.” The Gab app is still unavailable in Apple’s app store.
5: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Alleges Company Makes Up Less Than 1 Percent of Global Retail — Fails to Note U.S. Online Retail Market Dominance
Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world and CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon, noted in his opening remarks claiming that Amazon was not a monopoly that: “Amazon accounts for less than 1 percent of the [$]25 trillion in the global retail market and less than 4 percent of U.S. retail.”
Bezos is correct about those figures, but conveniently leaves out an extremely important one: Amazon accounts for 38 percent of all U.S. online shopping. Research firm eMarketer reports that Amazon accounts for approximately 38 percent of U.S. e-commerce sales, generating around $260.86 billion in revenue. The reserach firm writes:
We forecast that Amazon’s 2020 US retail ecommerce sales will rise 17.2% to $260.86 billion—4 percentage points higher than the expected overall growth rate for US retail ecommerce sales. As a result, Amazon’s market share will increase from 37.3% in 2019 to 38.7% this year while expanding its lead over the No. 2 player from 31.7 points to 33.4 points. We expect this momentum to continue into 2021 when it will reach 39.7% market share.
Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst and report author, noted: “What’s surprising is that despite accounting for nearly four in 10 e-commerce dollars, the company continues to gain market share and extend its lead.”
So while Bezos is correct that in terms of global retail Amazon does not have a monopoly, it does have a stranglehold on e-commerce in the United States and a large chunk globally.
6: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Exaggerates Company’s Competition
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a similar claim to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, that the tech giant regularly faces competition from other tech firms. Zuckerberg did this by suggesting that Facebook was competing with every single tech product that connects people, this would include video calling services such as Zoom or even niche social networks such as Pinterest.
“The space of people connecting with other people is a very large space,” Zuckerberg told Congress. This is technically true but what the CEO failed to mention is that 69 percent of Americans are using Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center. The next most popular social media network is the Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing app Instagram, which is used by 37 percent of U.S. adults.
Zuckerberg may be able to argue that in the broad definition of tech that connects users together Facebook does not dominate the market, but in terms of actual social media network dominance, Facebook’s power is unparalleled.
Read more about the tech CEO’s recent hearing before Congress at Breitbart News here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
Witnesses Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (top C), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (top R), Google CEO Sundar Pichai (bottom L), and Apple CEO Tim Cook are sworn in before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on "Online Platforms and Market Power" in the Rayburn House office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 29, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
The men heading four of the largest tech companies in the world faced hours of questioning from lawmakers on Capitol Hill on July 29 as part of an investigation into whether their companies have grown too powerful.
The chief executive officers from Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook defended their company practices, although the format of the hearing allowed little time for substantive discussion on a range of complex issues.
The hearing capped a yearlong congressional investigation into big tech’s alleged anti-competitive tactics and stifling of innovation, among other issues. Lawmakers sought to determine whether decades-old antitrust laws should be revised to address the realities of the digital age, which the four companies dominate.
“When the American people confronted monopolists in the past—be it the railroads and oil tycoons or AT&T and Microsoft—we took action to ensure no private corporation controls our economy or our democracy,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said in his opening statement. “We face similar challenges today.”
The congressional investigation is one of several inquiries into the tech firms’ practices. The Trump administration, federal regulators, and the Justice Department are looking into the four companies’ businesses. In September last year, the attorneys general in 50 states and territories opened an antitrust probe of Google’s advertising business. Apple is facing scrutiny in the European Union over its App Store practices.
The scrutiny intensified on July 29 after President Donald Trump said he would take matters in his own hands if Congress fails to deliver a legislative solution.
“If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders. In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!” the president wrote on Twitter.
The July 29 hearing marked the first congressional appearance of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and the world’s richest man. In opening remarks, he underlined his humble roots as the son of a single mother in high school.
Some of Amazon’s third-party vendors have accused the online retail giant of using internal data to copy-cat successful products. Critics also argue that the company has virtually cornered the online market in several product categories, especially books.
Bezos countered the concerns by pointing out that the company faces intense competition, including from companies that have adopted its successful third-party marketplace platform. There are now 1.7 million small and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon’s marketplace around the world, he said.
Bezos devoted a substantial portion of his speech to the collateral benefits of Amazon’s growth and wealth, including profits for the shareholders, large-scale innovation, and charitable works.
“More than 80% of Amazon shares are owned by outsiders, and over the last 26 years—starting from zero—we’ve created more than $1 trillion of wealth for those outside shareholders. Who are those shareowners? They are pension funds: fire, police, and school teacher pension funds,” Bezos said in written testimony.
In its bipartisan investigation, the Judiciary subcommittee collected testimony from mid-level executives of the four firms, competitors, and legal experts, and pored over more than a million internal documents from the companies.
Cicilline has called the four companies monopolies, although he says breaking them up should be a last resort. He also said that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, “these giants stand to profit” and become even more powerful as millions shift more of their work and commerce online.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, is faced with questions that range beyond the topic of market competition. His platform’s role as a place to share views and ideas has become the target of conservatives, who say they are singled out for censorship. Recently released undercover videos by investigative journalism outfit Project Veritas show Facebook moderators saying they delete everything conservative and pro-Trump.
“Big Tech is out to get conservatives,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
In the meantime, the company is under pressure from liberals to delete so-called “hate speech” and information on controversial topics.
“We believe in values—democracy, competition, inclusion, and free expression—that the American economy was built on,” Zuckerberg said in written testimony.
“Ultimately, I believe companies shouldn’t be making so many judgments about important issues like harmful content, privacy, and election integrity on their own,” he added. “That’s why I’ve called for a more active role for governments and regulators, and updated rules for the internet.”
Zuckerberg has said Facebook aims to allow as much free expression as possible unless it causes imminent risk of specific harm or damage.
European regulators have concluded that Google manipulated its search engine to gain an unfair advantage over other online shopping sites in the e-commerce market, and fined Google, whose parent is Alphabet Inc., a record $2.7 billion. Google has disputed the findings and is appealing.
“Google operates in highly competitive and dynamic global markets, in which prices are free or falling, and products are constantly improving,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in his written testimony. “Competition in ads—from Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Comcast, and others—has helped lower online advertising costs by 40% over the last 10 years, with these savings passed down to consumers through lower prices.”
Apple, whose iPhone is the third-largest seller in the world, faces EU investigations over the fees charged by its App Store. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said lawmakers have learned over the course of the investigation that Apple doesn’t share its criteria for approval for the app store and that the rules are “arbitrarily interpreted and enforced.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company treats every developer the same.
“We have open and transparent rules,” Cook said. “Those rules apply evenly to everyone.”
Apple’s App Store opened with 500 apps and has grown to 1.7 million today, according to Cook. The App Store business supports more than 1.9 million American jobs, he said.
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